Mag Pull

By Dan Shea

An item of interest to SAR’s readers would be the new offerings from Mag-pul. These rubber items offer an alternative method of removing magazines from the pouch for faster, more effective magazine changes. They are offered for 5.56 caliber magazines (M16, Mini 14, etc) and 9mm SMG magazines. They expand and firmly grip the magazine body, and allow the operator to quickly locate the magazine and snap it from the pouch in a position ready for reload. Color coding is available, for use in everything from identifying live round types to frangibles, to blanks.

Under the new regulations - rather the latest interpretations by ATF, making a “Pre-ban dreaded high capacity magazine” for one firearm fit into another firearm requires that the magazine still function into the original firearm. There had been a growing industry in the US where manufacturers were finding inexpensive magazines in quantity, and converting them to other firearms. This was a very pleasing development to firearms owners who were getting frustrated with the high prices- prices inflated by government fiat- producing an artificial scarcity. Quality is always worth paying a little extra for, so some enterprising individuals have been scouring the world for quality magazines that could be readily adapted to firearms in the US, and still maintain their original use.

Gunsmith Stan Andrewski has been involved in several recent projects that are of interest to SAR’s readers.

First are the Uzi 40 rounders that have been appearing of late. These are adapted from the Argentinean FMK3 submachine gun. The FMK3 is a very reliable and interesting SMG on its own account, but that is another story. The Uzi 40 rounders that Stan is offering still fit and function in the FMK3 without any modifications, so they are legitimately “Pre-ban”.

I bought one from him at Knob Creek, and took it home to try. The magazine was robustly manufactured of steel, as strong as the Israeli magazines that were made for the Uzi. In our tests we had no problems whatsoever. Period. Uzis tend to be very reliable to begin with, some ammo sensitivity regarding truncated cone feeding, but still reliable. I have had some problems with various US manufactured aftermarket magazines, but had no problems at all with this forty round unit. The extra ten rounds does not take up too much space, and I would recommend these magazines to competitive shooters and LE alike.

Stan is selling these for $69.95 each, with discounts to $59.95 for 5-10 units, and $49.95 for 10 units plus. He has dealer quantity pricing as well. (Stan Andrewski 603-746-4387)

On another interesting note, Stan had some of the new forty rounders for the Colt 9mm SMG. This otherwise reliable system has been cursed with an original magazine that has a reputation for unloading itself if dropped, so my first test with these magazines was to fill them and drop them. I am sure that people thought I was nuts, filling mags, then dropping them, but - hey, it is something that we needed to know.

They worked out fine. These started out as Halcon SMG magazines, and will still fulfill their original function, as is, so there is not a problem on the “Pre ban” issue. The magazines are well made, robust enough for duty use, and filled to 38 rounds were perfectly reliable. The gentle curve of the magazines fit both the original magwell adapter in my Colt SMG, and the aftermarket ones that I have in other guns. Reliable, robust, and forty rounds that don’t unload at inconvenient moments. I was pleased with them. These are available from Stan as well and retail for $29.95 each.

This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V4N5 (February 2001)and was posted online on September 12, 2014